What would be a day trading "starter kit"?

I see pictures of day traders with six computer screens and all sorts of stuff. Is there some sort of recommended must-have set of tools for a day trader? For example, with my existing computer, I can watch the chart of a stock over the course of a day. But I don't think I have the right setup to see second-by-second movements.

A post earlier today talked about finding out what you are best at. Maybe some people are better at day trading, others are better at options, others are better at buy and hold, etc.

I would like to try day trading to see if I have any interest/aptitude for it. I would be happy to do paper day trading to start. But I'm not sure what a proper day trading set up would look like. There are some fancy oscilloscope-looking screens out there. I don't even know what that stuff is. I could also get some books on Amazon, but I'm not sure which ones would be good ones.

The good news about day trading is you can iterate quickly. In a month you could have 20 tries at it. So if you were doing this with paper money, you could examine your success quickly without losing money.

The good news about day trading is you can iterate quickly. In a month you could have 20 tries at it. So if you were doing this with paper money, you could examine your success quickly without losing money.

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you are right.
you have more trades - which is not always good-but it is good for learning And you are lucky because nowadays you can trade with 5usd-when i started out you needed minimum 10000 usd.
better if you lose 5 usd than 10000 usd.

paper trading will not show anything

trade forex with 5 usd.....trade the smallest lot size keep trading 5 usd at a time until it becomes 100 usd then you can put more money.

you are right.
you have more trades - which is not always good-but it is good for learning And you are lucky because nowadays you can trade with 5usd-when i started out you needed minimum 10000 usd.
better if you lose 5 usd than 10000 usd.

paper trading will not show anything

trade forex with 5 usd.....trade the smallest lot size keep trading 5 usd until it becomes 100 usd then you can put more money

More...

Thanks. So Forex is the place to start of for a day trader? I'm used to equities. But for day trading, maybe Forex is the main place to be.

I see pictures of day traders with six computer screens and all sorts of stuff. Is there some sort of recommended must-have set of tools for a day trader? For example, with my existing computer, I can watch the chart of a stock over the course of a day. But I don't think I have the right setup to see second-by-second movements.

A post earlier today talked about finding out what you are best at. Maybe some people are better at day trading, others are better at options, others are better at buy and hold, etc.

I would like to try day trading to see if I have any interest/aptitude for it. I would be happy to do paper day trading to start. But I'm not sure what a proper day trading set up would look like. There are some fancy oscilloscope-looking screens out there. I don't even know what that stuff is. I could also get some books on Amazon, but I'm not sure which ones would be good ones.

The good news about day trading is you can iterate quickly. In a month you could have 20 tries at it. So if you were doing this with paper money, you could examine your success quickly without losing money.

More...

It is easier for most to get a four year or six year degree from Harvard than it is to learn how to day trade. There are more billionaires who trade equities than just a few who have to day trade decades, think someone said there might be one who made a billion? And it not me as I been trading forty years, and although am decent scalper, the blunt of what I have made is in long term commodities, much less trading and you can have an outside life. Expect to do a min of 10,000 hours of screen time, and much reading, stay away from indicators till you learn charting till you don't have to think what is going on with a chart, you just know it.

Unless you have 3,000 sample size of each signal through back testing, trading "live" will do more harm than good IMHO, you will pick up undue fear and bad habits. When you think you are ready do a demo account and triple it three separate times, no sense opening an account.

The years you are learning to day trade, you could get a degree, and get decent job, many only see what they want to see. This is one of the hardest jobs in the world and you can expect to see the worst emotions within yourself. I certainly went way down emotionally and your personally will change once you become profitable, often times wondering "that was all I had to do"? But to get to that stage was incredible amount of putting it all together.

if you just do theoretical you will never know it that can be put into practice.

open an account with small amount of money expecting to lose it exchange your money for a real valuable education
You may have to do 10000 hours or 400000000000000000000 but you can only see 20 yards in front of you, you can only take one step at a time but you can travel thousands of miles that way

I see pictures of day traders with six computer screens and all sorts of stuff. Is there some sort of recommended must-have set of tools for a day trader? For example, with my existing computer, I can watch the chart of a stock over the course of a day. But I don't think I have the right setup to see second-by-second movements.

A post earlier today talked about finding out what you are best at. Maybe some people are better at day trading, others are better at options, others are better at buy and hold, etc.

I would like to try day trading to see if I have any interest/aptitude for it. I would be happy to do paper day trading to start. But I'm not sure what a proper day trading set up would look like. There are some fancy oscilloscope-looking screens out there. I don't even know what that stuff is. I could also get some books on Amazon, but I'm not sure which ones would be good ones.

The good news about day trading is you can iterate quickly. In a month you could have 20 tries at it. So if you were doing this with paper money, you could examine your success quickly without losing money.

More...

All those additional screens, all the extra technical equipment only makes sense once you really know what you are doing and start to trade like you are running a business. If you just want to try it out and see if it might be for you, I suggest you pick one actively traded market. I recommend the S&P500 emini futures. Now dont get confused with all those fancy charts, indicators and other unnecessary stuff. Just focus on the actual market, and what it is doing right now. Open a DOM (depth of market) and/ or a times and sales window on your trading platform (can and should be a paper trading account at the beginning). Now follow the market from the RTH opening for at least an hour (better more, once you get used to it you can sit through the whole RTH session) and just follow price and its behaviour. Do this for a few sessions and you will be able to tell if this is something you would like to stick with. If you think this might be for you and you want to stick with it, give it 6-12 months time. After about half a year to a full year of being truly engaged in the market, you should be able to understand and trade the very shortterm dynamics of the market.

No (sustainable) shortcuts to success in life, neither in trading. Prepare yourself to invest plenty of time, effort, work, heart and soul if you want to harvest the juicy fruits of trading. If you have 1 screen or 6 screens wont make or break it.